telnet links

[Robert Rasmussen]

On Thu, 30 Oct 1997, Sheryl Dwinell wrote:

> We have links to several online library catalogs that are text-based and
> have telnet links that include a port number. Currently, I have them set up
> like this: 
> 
> <a href="telnet://library.university.edu:6000">
> 
> However, we're finding that some telnet apps can't seem to interpret the
> port number. We've had suggestions to set this up with one or two spaces in
> place of the colon, but this still doesn't seem to work. Has anyone else
> experienced this problem? I'm not quite sure what to tell folks except tell
> them to install a different telnet client.  Any suggestions?

It is dangerous, of course, to change your practices to accommodate software
that doesn't deal with standards. And this IS a standard (I could look up the
RFC number if you're curious).

IN FACT, the standard also allows for:
   usermame at sitename
and
   username:password at sitename
(both with or without the ":port" afterwards). These are minimally used, and
often not handled correctly, but they offer the prospect of solving some other
problems ("After connecting, use 'libcat' for the login").

Of course, my (considerably biased) opinion is that they should get a
fully-functioned telnet :-)

Regards,
....Bob Rasmussen,   President,   Rasmussen Software, Inc.

personal e-mail: ras at anzio.com
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